The United States and the United Nations have imposed sanctions on two high-profile Haitians former police officer Dimitri Hérard and alleged gang leader Kempes Sanon for their roles in supporting the violent Viv Ansanm gang coalition, which has fueled chaos and instability across Haiti.
Announced on October 17, the coordinated sanctions aim to weaken the financial and logistical networks sustaining Viv Ansanm’s campaign of violence, extortion, and human rights abuses.
According to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the sanctions freeze any U.S.-based assets belonging to Hérard and Sanon and prohibit American individuals or organizations from conducting business with them. The move follows the May 2025 designation of Viv Ansanm as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist and Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. State Department.
“Today’s action underscores the critical role of gang leaders and facilitators like Hérard and Sanon, whose support enables Viv Ansanm’s campaign of violence, extortion, and terrorism in Haiti,” said OFAC Director Bradley T. Smith. “The United States is committed to holding accountable the violent terrorist gangs endangering the Haitian people.”
At the same time, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution applying asset freezes, travel bans, and an arms embargo on both Hérard and Sanon, requiring all member states to enforce these restrictions.
Hérard, once head of the General Security Unit of the National Palace under President Jovenel Moïse, was implicated in the 2021 assassination of the president and later imprisoned. He escaped during a March 2024 prison break orchestrated by gang networks and is accused by the Treasury Department of directly supporting Viv Ansanm’s attacks on government institutions.
Sanon, meanwhile, leads the Bel Air gang, a central faction of Viv Ansanm with roughly 150 members operating in the Port-au-Prince area. He escaped prison in 2021 while facing charges of kidnapping, theft, and murder and has since expanded Viv Ansanm’s influence through a campaign of violence, extortion, and territorial control.
Authorities accuse Sanon of orchestrating the 2023 Bel Air massacre, where over 140 people were killed, many burned alive, and dozens of homes destroyed in one of the country’s deadliest gang-related attacks.
These actions by the U.S. and U.N. reflect an intensifying international effort to disrupt Haiti’s powerful gang networks and restore stability to the nation amid worsening insecurity.
